Has anyone been to Magic yet?

[subdude]

I'm thinking of going for a day trip next week. How are the conditions? From the webpage it looks like they're 100% open with one lift running?

100% Open

100% natural base variable snow depth and conditions.

Storm total: 7"-15" Fresh Powder

Lifts: Red Chair

Comment: Little cold but still nice out!

Didn't realize they had a snow storm yesterday.

 

[2knees]

Went tuesday. It was still highly untracked in most places. However, bring rockers. Fat rockers if you have em. It's 15" of powder on top of grass and rocks, no base at all. Seriously. It was sick. I only lasted for 7 or 8 runs. I was either going to kill myself or break my skis. One note, stay away from master magician. I got a nasty core shot on it. Goniff, lucifer, twilight zone were awesome. Redline could use some more snow. Before and after the first two rock bands are pretty shot even with very little trafffic. I hit it once and probably shouldnt have.

 

[pepperdawg]

Went tuesday. It was still highly untracked in most places. However, bring rockers. Fat rockers if you have em. It's 15" of powder on top of grass and rocks, no base at all. Seriously. It was sick. I only lasted for 7 or 8 runs. I was either going to kill myself or break my skis. One note, stay away from master magician. I got a nasty core shot on it. Goniff, lucifer, twilight zone were awesome. Redline could use some more snow. Before and after the first two rock bands are pretty shot even with very little trafffic. I hit it once and probably shouldnt have.

No one there I take it? (skier traffic wise)?

 

[riverc0il]

No one there I take it? (skier traffic wise)?

:lol: :lol: :lol:

traffic? at magic???

:lol:

they don't exist at magic even on the best of mid-week powder days.

 

[skiguy]

Deaths at Magic.

You prabably won't find my Subject Title appealing, but I wanted to copy an old Newspaper article I have stored into digital format and publish it. There was a long thread regarding Magic on Snowjournal.com which degraded into non-sense so I figured I could start my posting here with this. Magic has always been challenging as the guy who posted his experience there recently has pointed out. You can destroy more than your skiis. Since re-reading this article, I've been curious about whether or not over it's long history there has been more deaths per sold lift tickets there than other ski areas.

Skier Dies in Magic Mountain accident
LONDONDERRY, Vt. (AP)--A skier at Magic Mountain ski area in Londonderry died Saturday, after he apparently lost control and skied off a trail.
Mathew Lupero, 25, of Elliot City, Md. was found by another skier about 15 feet off a steep section of the Wizard Trail near a tree. Lupero had been skiing with his wife and friends, police said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy is pending. The accident was the second death in a month at Magic Mountain. A New York man died Feb. 2 after skiing off the same trail. 2-16-91

I skied Wizard the day before, Friday. It was terribly slick with ice at the switchback and crouded. I believe this was during the February vacation period. Of course this hasn't stopped me from skiing there, but I did not start skiing there until I had extensive experience in skiing.

 

[2knees]

Re: Deaths at Magic.

You prabably won't find my Subject Title appealing, but I wanted to copy an old Newspaper article I have stored into digital format and publish it. There was a long thread regarding Magic on Snowjournal.com which degraded into non-sense so I figured I could start my posting here with this. Magic has always been challenging as the guy who posted his experience there recently has pointed out. You can destroy more than your skiis. Since re-reading this article, I've been curious about whether or not over it's long history there has been more deaths per sold lift tickets there than other ski areas.

Skier Dies in Magic Mountain accident
LONDONDERRY, Vt. (AP)--A skier at Magic Mountain ski area in Londonderry died Saturday, after he apparently lost control and skied off a trail.
Mathew Lupero, 25, of Elliot City, Md. was found by another skier about 15 feet off a steep section of the Wizard Trail near a tree. Lupero had been skiing with his wife and friends, police said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy is pending. The accident was the second death in a month at Magic Mountain. A New York man died Feb. 2 after skiing off the same trail. 2-16-91

I skied Wizard the day before, Friday. It was terribly slick with ice at the switchback and crouded. I believe this was during the February vacation period. Of course this hasn't stopped me from skiing there, but I did not start skiing there until I had extensive experience in skiing.

Deaths can and unfortunately happen at any ski area regardless of how difficult that area can be. Magic has a much more liberal policy of opening trails and has less snowmaking and grooming now than it did in the late 80's early 90's. I say this because that is the date of the article you posted. Fortunately, i dont think there are enough fatalities to really draw any sort of conclusions about whether one area is more prone for these horrible events over another. One thing magic does do, and it is not the norm in todays ski area environment, is to basically treat you like an adult. You make the call. If something seems to exposed, steep, etc, dont ski it. Most areas would not have opened their steeper terrain with the lack of base and moderate cover. I think its awesome that there are still places like magic and i would assume Mad River (never been there) that dont follow the mainstream "guidelines" that most other areas adhere to. It isnt for everyone (nor for me) all the time, but that is what makes it special.

 

[skiguy]

Deaths at Magic.

Unfortunately, a death was what closed Magic so it is certainly more important for them to prevent them than it might be for other ski areas. I didn't ski Magic last year because I didn't ski downhill much. However, I approach it differently than I do the bigger ski areas and that would be with caution.

 

[Treeliner]

Went to Magic this past week. It was icy- real bad. All the powder they had gotten had warmed up and then frozen solid. Typical of Magic, they still had 90% open. When I bought my lift ticket, the guys at the counter were adamant on telling me several times to "be careful". I said to my friend- What other ski resort tells the customer when they're buying their lift ticket to "be careful out there"? I love it though- it's a real special place.

Also, the place was absolutely empty , maybe 15 other cars in the parking lot all day.

 

[skiguy]

Ski area warnings.

Actually, I have been warned like that a number of times. Maybe it is the way I look when dressed for skiing, though. However, last year I was warned at Sugar North when buying a ticket. The fact was that the conditions weren't all that bad, but since it was a bargain day, they were crouded with local kids. I saw in another thread (Bromley Trip report) that many people at Magic were demanding their money back.

 

[marcski]

I heard people were demanding there money back at lots of mountains this past week...since the rains not just magic. I heard about people doing that at stratton and mt. snow as well.

 

[jct]

We stopped at Magic on Wednesday the 28th. Folks in the ticket line ahead of us were asking for their money back. The National Ski Patroller told me that there was only 1 way down from the top.... Despite Magic's web site boasting 95% open! We headed over to Bromley. I've posted that trip report already.